I seem to be taking longer between posts lately...just a busy season I guess. Things are crazy at work and pretty busy on the home front too. At least I have a vacation coming up; but, sadly, not until after next week. And what really sucks is that I have to go to Keokuk, IA on Friday. I know--who the heck goes to Keokuk?

We were planning to take a trip home (down South where it's warm and nice and comfy) for Christmas but decided to stay in STL. The more I see of the weather forecast, the more I wish we hadn't changed our minds. I think the kids are excited to stay here and be with their friends for the holidays.

Major League Baseball released the "Mitchell Report" today about steroids in baseball. It's a pretty sad commentary about what we value in this country when the biggest story in the nation is about how a retired congressman took over a year and a half to figure out what we all already knew anyway: that a bunch of millionaires who play a kids' game for a living succumbed to the temptation to enhance their performance so they could make more money--duh. And any owner who acts the least bit shocked--especially the one who is the so-called commissioner--should be punched right in the face. Every single one of them turned a blind eye because every homerun, every strikeout, every exciting thing that happened in their ballpark put more money in their pockets--risk to the players and moral turpitude be damned.

Darfur is still in the midst of genocide, thousands of children die every day for lack of so basic a need as clean drinking water, good jobs are exported to countries where workers make a few dollars a month and live in squaller so that our millionaires can get richer and we talk incessantly about whether the steroid 'scandal' will damage baseball's fan base or whether or not our movie stars will attend the Golden Globes if the writers' strike doesn't end. I love our country, but sometimes it makes me sad.

Pray for peace.
Mike